Freedom Wars Remastered is the triumphant return of the fan-favorite fascist. monster hunter-Action-style game, originally published by Sony for PS Vita in 2014. As the PS Vita (sadly) never achieved the huge success it deserved, we always felt that this forward-thinking title didn’t receive a fair response. With “volunteers” on PS5 and PS4 to potentially boost it, Remastered gives the best of the IP, even if it drags interminably in places.
Set in a bleak future, environmental destruction and nuclear war have forced the remnants of humanity to take refuge in vast underground panopticons, independent city-states competing for scraps of food in which the majority of the population is imprisoned and in prison jobs.
Due to extreme scarcity of resources, these “sinners” are penalized for the high crime of existing, and newborns receive sentences of millions of years, which can be shortened by serving in the constant conflict between Panopticons. These foreign aggressors, as well as advanced people from a place called On High, send futuristic kidnappers to capture unsuspecting sinners, and fighting these great enemies is a big part of the game and a surprisingly complicated spectacle.
The original Freedom Wars was developed in collaboration with a trio of studios and is a pretty strange beast. Shift handled the concept, art, and overall design, while Dimps worked with Japan Studio to develop the mechanics and gameplay (technically, making the title its own release).
Robert Ramsey of Push Square revised at launch, and many of the original’s problems remain in Remastered, but an excellent graphical update improves it. Like all games (at least in performance mode), it’s much more playable thanks to a consistently high frame rate, and the input switch from PS Vita to DualSense shouldn’t be underestimated; The original’s controversial controls have been modernized, the haptics add weight, and with L2 and R2 triggers, you don’t have to rely on the PS Vita’s awkward rear touchpad for basic game functions.
Freedom Wars’ biggest strengths are its setting and gameplay, and both are strong but fail to evolve as the game progresses. The premise is compelling, and while it’s used significantly in gameplay, penalizing players for things like running inside or venturing too far from their ever-present accessory (until the appropriate privileges are unlocked) is about as far as it goes. do (especially the first few hours). kind of hard work, which is the point. Similarly, while the variety of weapon types is appreciated, the simplistic crafting system required to keep pace with the abductors’ dramatically increasing health reserves seems like a lot of busy work.
The game’s quest and quest structure doesn’t help; It’s still primarily designed for portable sessions on the PS Vita. The loop regularly has large swaths of dialogue and running around as your customized character encounters his fellow sinners and captors, requiring players to navigate the gentle depths of the Panopticon in seemingly endless fetch quests.
Once you have a combat mission, you will be assigned or able to select a squad of allied NPCs to take into the field, engage in fairly simple elimination or rescue operations, secure resources, and issue orders. As the player and each NPC have their own customizable accessory (cyborg bodyguard/parole officer), playing these missions can be a spectacle and a wonder, if eventually a bit repetitive.
The ability to equip multiple thorns, vine-like appendages that can be used as grappling hooks or to heal or buff allies, adds depth and verticality to the game. Over time, you’ll even be able to command your squad with a list of custom orders that will be obeyed with surprising efficiency. When it comes down to it, the combat in Freedom Wars is still incredibly engaging. Unfortunately, while useful (enhanced by tactile feel), both melee and ranged combat fall far short of the complexity of similar action-hunting games, with a lower skill cap and feel a bit floating.
NPC combatants can be replaced by real players, and this will presumably be the most efficient way to play (depending on the player), but Freedom Wars can be played alone. While we were unable to find friends during the review period, we are happy to report that the League of Panopticons leaderboard is functional; Surplus equipment can be donated “for the greater good”, improving the reputation of the player’s chosen ‘Con’.
You can choose from one of the 47 prefectures that represent Japan; The additional 50 representing international cities were added in the original post-launch, and we may see a similar expansion in the future. Increasing your ranking, as well as that of your communities, remains rewarding, with various motivational leaderboards always present in each sinner’s cell.
We assume that since this is a remaster and not a remake, the PS Vita’s hardware limitations persist. Freedom Wars Remastered loads constantly, and while you’ll eventually be allowed to fast travel, you better believe that means another loading screen. Each transition from your cell in the Panopticon will cost you a good few seconds, as well as before and after combat; We have been spoiled in the PS5 era.
With a distinctive art style and a dark synth soundtrack, Freedom Wars is aesthetically quite pleasing for what it is. There’s quite a bit more voice acting this time around, too, and even your Accessory chimes in (it sounds like a text-to-speech app, which is certainly starting to drag). In the chaos of combat, the barking of your character, your allies, and your accessories can sometimes be a bit annoying, but your mileage may vary.
Finally, the characters you interact with are relatively flat, falling into familiar archetypes, and feeling thin. We assume the goal was to provide a large enough pool of potential allies for players to find a favorite, but it might have been more useful to focus on fewer and provide some depth. Edgy and engaging, the vibe Freedom Wars is going for is somewhat spoiled by characters whose motivations and concerns sometimes seem at odds with the supposed gravity of the setting.
Conclusion
Freedom Wars Remastered is a great way to revive the restrictive action game. In 2025, the game’s innovative multiplayer components have a greater chance of capturing a dedicated community, and graphical and technical improvements make it the definitive way to play. But at its core it’s a PS Vita game; The constant loading, boring characters, comparatively simple combat, and endless busy grinding have somewhat tarnished our fond memories of the original game.
